


Save me a dance

by MarinaScarlet



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: Ballroom dance, F/M, Fairy Tale Land, Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-03-07
Updated: 2013-03-07
Packaged: 2017-12-04 14:09:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,684
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/711598
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MarinaScarlet/pseuds/MarinaScarlet
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>What if Rumpelstiltskin asked Belle for a dance in his castle?</p>
            </blockquote>





	Save me a dance

**Author's Note:**

> This fic is based in the photo that Robert Carlyle posted in his twitter last week and made all the fandom go nuts. And today we were in need of some fluff so I managed to finish it. Plus, the music that is played in the dance it’s the Blue Danube waltz. I think it really suit for them, and I encourage to listen to it as you read this. Enjoy, dearies!

There have near three months since Belle had arrived to the Dark Castle in order to be Rumpelstiltskin’s caretaker, and in less than a week she have been moved from the dungeon to a proper room. He seemed to enjoy her company, and she was getting used to his jokes and quips; it wasn’t as worse at it seemed at the beginning. 

 

One evening, before Belle had finished her duties and was resting in her room, Rumpelstiltskin come to see her. 

“ _May I come in?_ ” He asked knocking on the door softly.

“ _Yes, it’s open!_ ” She was surprised; he has never come to see her.

“ _How are you doing, dearie?_ ” He stayed on the doorway.

“ _I was… Reading._ ” She smiled and put the bookmark between the pages she was reading, leaving the book over her bed.  “ _Is something wrong?_ ”

“ _No, no. I was just… Wondering if you…_ ” He looked at her and smiled shyly; the words thronged in his throat. He was really nervous.

“ _What?_ ”

“ _If you would accept to dance with me._ ” He said it very quickly, as if he was afraid of saying it.

“ _Dance with you?_ ” She smiled. “ _Yes, of course! I’d love to have a dance. Long time since I had the last one._ ” She looked around her room and searched for the yellow dress. “ _But my ball dress is dirty…_ ” She pointed at the hanger in which it was placed.

“ _Well, magic can fix that quickly…_ ” 

And with a snap of his fingers the dress turned from a nasty yellow to a bright one, and so the shoes. 

“ _Why, thank you._ ” She smiled.  “ _I hope this won’t take me too much…_ ”

“ _Oh, don’t worry. When you’re ready, summon me and I’ll come here._ ”

“ _Alright then. I’ll call you._ ” He smiled, bowed slightly and then left the room. Belle grinned and started to twirl with her blue dress. 

It was the first time in years that she would have a ball; the last time she danced was with Gaston, the day of their engagement. She had worn the same dress, but the feelings were different by far.

A few days ago they have talked about love, and how she saw it. The conversation had started with him bowing and giving her a rose, a gesture that she loved. In fact, she was starting to feel something for him, far beyond the relation master-caretaker.

It was love.

Thirty minutes later, Belle was ready. 

She closed her eyes and took a deep breath before opening her mouth. “ _Rumpelstiltskin, I summon thee._ ” She said firmly, without any doubt in his voice.

“ _You’re… Really beautiful, Belle._ ” He greeted. 

She bowed as she was taught; he was wearing his usual leather trousers and his boots, but he was wearing a maroon silk shirt, accompanied of a black jacket, more formal than the one she saw the day he came to Avonlea. He was dressed for a ballroom dance, indeed.

“ _If you let me…_ ” He got closer to her to take her hand and place a kiss in it. Then he took her arm and they descend the stairs together, walking together, in silence, until they reached the room of the castle in which they spent more time together: the spinning room. The table had disappeared, as well as some of the ornaments and the spinning wheel. Airborne candles lighted the lounge, giving it a romantic atmosphere. Belle was amazed.

With a snap of his fingers, music started to be played.

_** Both a little scared, neither one prepared ** _

It was a music that Belle have never heard, but in fact she liked it.

“ _Where is this music from? It isn’t familiar for me._ ”

“ _It’s music from another land, dearie. A good friend of mine brought it to me from one of his trips. Do you like it?_ ”

“ _Yes, it’s very sweet and nice to listen._ ”  She smiled and looked at him. “ _Aren’t you going to take my hand and start the dance?_ ” Belle got closer to him. “ _Don’t worry. Put a hand in my waist…_ ” Only a few centimetres separated them. “ _And then you take my hand. I’ll put the other in your shoulder and we can start._ ”

Her feet started to move with the rhythm of the music, letting her go, and making Rumpelstiltskin move with her. At the beginning, their movements were clumsy, uncoordinated, but with time, Belle started to get used to his shape, and so did he with her. 

The music started slowly, but it started to make an upgrading progression, as they did too. Belle was murmuring the beat of the music, and her breathing was colliding with his chest, making his go fast. Suddenly, the melody made a rhythm change, to a fast one, and he took the leadership of the dance. Belle grinned, and followed him.

They were moving all around the room, with long movements that covered the long and width of the place. They turned in themselves with soft twists, trying not to get dizzy, and following each beat, each pulse, each note that song played. They were charmed by the music; everything around them had disappeared. 

Their heartbeats were accelerated, and so their breaths. The dancing was leaving them tired, but also what they felt for each other; it was starting to rise from all the layers they have put over their feelings. In the end, to love is to peel those layers, to discover the core, to uncover that mystery which lays wrapped inside us. And if in the end you’re able to embrace that nude core, to coexist with each one of its virtues but also with each one of its flaws, then you’ll have discovered what true love is. 

Belle blushed each time she looked at Rumpelstiltskin; the fact that he had invited her to dance was still shocking her, but she was really content with how everything was going. Maybe, if she wasn’t too shy, she would tell him what she felt for him. “ _Remember what you said once: Do the brave thing and bravery would follow. It’s time to be brave, Belle_ ” she encouraged herself as she placed her head in his chest, taking a deep breath and letting herself go, hearing his heartbeat, and feeling more comfortable and loved in that moment than in her whole life.

Rumpelstiltskin blushed and started to panic when Belle placed her head in his chest; everything seemed surreal, like a dream. Why a girl like her, a truly beauty, have decided to dance with him? And why she felt so comfortable and was blushing and smiling so much? All kind of questions were throbbing in his head. He simply refused to believe that she accepted it so quickly. Why she was there, dancing music from another world, in his castle? Why she was so content? 

The music started to fade away, and Belle raised her head, looking at him.

“ _Rumpelstiltskin…_ ”

“ _Yes, Belle?_ ”

“ _Do you think we could have a walk in the castle’s garden?_ ”

“ _It’s cold, and dark…_ ”

“ _Your magic can do something for sure._ ” She started to pull him towards the main door of the castle. “ _Come on, I want to see the starry night!_ ”

He couldn’t resist to her charms, and accepted to go for that walk. He was intrigued about why Belle wanted to walk into the garden that night. Everything sounded strange for him.

With a snap of his fingers, he made appear a cream colour cloak for Belle, to protect her from the cold. He took her left arm and started to walk slowly into the rose garden he had, looking at the stars and letting the smell of the flowers and the night embrace them. The sky was completely clear; all the constellations could be seen.

After they have walked all the place in completely silence, Belle decided that they could sat on one of the stone benches in the garden; then she would tell him what she felt and maybe she could give him a kiss. She had to be brave.

Nevertheless, the natural phenomena usually change the course of the things, and in this case, a meteor shower made Belle rethink what she was going to do. Instead of telling him, she wished upon a  star to have another opportunity to do it, and to make things right. 

She closed her eyes as she mumbled her wish.

Rumpelstiltskin looked at her, with the eyes of a man who was starting to feel again, after three hundred years of being alone, with no one who loved him. And he wished the feelings she had for him were true, as his. 

“ _Did you ask for something, dearie?_ ”

“ _Oh, yes!_ ” She grinned. “ _But if I tell you, my wish won’t be granted, and I really want it to come true._ ” She looked at him curious. “ _Did you ask for something too?_ ”

“ _Indeed, yes. But I’m neither going to tell you what I asked for._ ” He smiled. “ _Come on, let’s get inside. You must be freezing._ ”

“ _Thanks… For being so gentle and caring about me. Not much people in this world have taken care about me._ ” She rose from the bench with him and they started to walk towards the entrance. “ _You’re really kind with me despite I’m your caretaker._ ”

“ _Well, the fact that you’re my caretaker doesn’t mean that I had to be rude and disrespectful with you. Plus, you’re a lady, and ladies deserve respect and care._ ” They got into the castle; Belle was thankfully to be inside the warm walls of it.

“ _You’re a chevalier, Rumpelstiltskin, a true knight._ ” She started to walk the stairs that leaded to her room, but before disappearing into the spiral staircase, she placed a timid kiss on his left cheek. “ _Goodnight, Rumpelstiltskin._ ”

He couldn’t say anything, that kiss had left him paralyzed. Belle walked the staircase quickly, grinning and blushing. She had been brave, not in the way she expected, but at least in one that she could afford that night.

And for a moment, Rumpelstiltskin thought that wishes can be granted, even the ones asked for the most powerful wizards.


End file.
